I didn't win an Oscar.....
I am a Husband, Father, Scientist, Actor, Businessman, Musician and now…Author.
My career arc has been creative, entrepreneurial and fun. After moderate success as an Actor, I didn't win an Oscar, I co-founded one of Australia’s leading Actor Training Institutions and a successful Clothing Retail chain. After managing, growing and enjoying the success of those companies for over 30 years I am now focusing my energies on helping wholesale and retail businesses build winning strategies around profit and work life balance.
Sounds pretty good really...
But 30 years ago and I was nearly broke.
One day, after a few years of success, we realised the business wasn't as successful as we thought it was. The failures and the challenges were hidden behind the profits. I mean, we were making good profits, but we were completely stressed out from running the business. This was not challenging in a business sense, but challenging in a private sense, because it was difficult for our relationship. We were struggling with balancing everything that needed to be balanced to keep this business going. At that stage, my wife and business partner, who was the Buyer and very important to the success of the business, had resigned about twenty times and I had refused to allow her to resign!
I thought,
"I need to do something. We need to change the way we're doing business or this will be the end of us."
The love of retail, the understanding of the disciplines of retail and wholesale, go right back to when I was very young. Like so many migrants my parents set an incredible example of work ethic and focus. They showed me how to really grab an opportunity, grab the strengths you are given and develop your skills, they believed in me.....
......But I had to find a new better way to operate.
More than ever, right now everything about your business has to be run at a level, as close to optimum as possible.
When I started my first store in 1986, as long as you were happy to genuinely smile and treat the customer as a friend, greeting them with a really positive attitude, they would come back. Yes, you did have to have the right stock for your customers but getting hold of the right inventory; the right product offer was and is only part of the challenge.
The real challenge is getting into the habits of forward planning, margin and inventory management to give you the greatest possible profit and the highest probability of success.
So, I found new frameworks and committed to them and they helped me get my business back on track. I grew more cash in the bank and I found the freedom to spend time with my family and all the people who brought real joy into my life.
I wanted to see if my frameworks could be used by other businesses.
So a little while ago we sold our retail business and I started to build a consulting and training business.I did the typical things, the things everyone says you 'must' do.
Cold calls and email.
Networking.
Chasing referrals.
I was on the constant wheel of chasing business and delivering. Doing proposals. It took me a while to break the cycle.To simplify everything and distil it to it’s core.
And so, I wrote a book.
Today, I live happily with my family.
I don’t work crazy hours .I still work hard but I do it on my terms....
Because I have a system that people want
and helps them find certainty in their retail or wholesale businesses.
